Catalan President Carles Puigdemont chaired a Monday cabinet
meeting. He’s expected to ask regional parliamentarians to vote on
an independence declaration within days, calling Sunday’s vote
valid, binding, and had to be applied, adding:

“My government in the next few days will send the results of the
vote to the Catalan parliament, where the sovereignty of our people
lies, so that it can act in accordance with the law of the
referendum.”

EU officials can no longer “continue to look the other way.” At the
same time, Puigdemont called for international mediation to help
resolve a standoff with Madrid, saying “(w)e don’t want a traumatic
break…We want a new understanding with the Spanish state.”

Catalan trade unions and associations called a region-wide strike
for Tuesday, protesting Madrid’s “grave violation of rights and
freedoms.”

In Madrid, PM Mariano Roy is meeting with ruling People’s Party
officials, discussing how to confront Catalonian independence if
declared as expected.